As connected lobbyist Remy Danton on House of Cards, Mahershala Ali is kind of how you imagine grown up men when you're a little kid: He's mature, confident, capable, and a damn good dresser. It's hard to imagine that the guy who plays him—and also makes his mark on Katniss as District 13 solider Boggs in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1—out today, could measure up.

But Mahershala Ali (pronounced ma-HER-shuh-luh) is some seriously adult company. When he arrives to Stanton Social for a round of lemonades, I'm immediately taken with his outfit. Not only is he a black belt in layering—his look includes a chambray flak jacket, paisley print button down fastened up to the tippy top, and a fedora—but he makes it look easy. You know what else is easy? His face. On my eyes. But aesthetics aside, he's the kind of person whose calm and self-assured mannerisms you find yourself mirroring. The guy is also a master at eye contact, who says things like, "So tell me about you." When he asks me this, however, I'm so taken aback by the interest in my own life, that I practically short circuit. "Um...Well. I've worked at ELLE for nearly three years..." (good one, J!) "I'm 30..." (good God) "...and, uh, I like hot guys...very much like yourself?"

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There's a beat during which I consider passing out, but, luckily for me, Ali's eyes crinkle, his tongue flicks up to the roof of his mouth, and his wide, classic smile unfolds itself to reveal a row of perfectly straight teeth. It's like the sunrise of smiles. And, for a brief moment in time, it's mine all mine. Here the Hunger Games newbie talks about his penchant for playing morally ambiguous characters, goofing off with Jennifer Lawrence, and fashion foibles courtesy of his well-intentioned wife.

I, like so many people, watched the entire second season of "House of Cards" over one weekend. And yet, I still don't know if I'm supposed to like Remy!

[Laughs] I think that it's more interesting when people are more grey, you know? We've had so many years of television and stories where it's like, 'This is the good guy, and this is the bad guy.' What's unique about House of Cards is that even the lead character is technically the bad guy, but you like him and you connect to his motivation. I think that—in life, as well—even if there are people who you and I could agree on that, 'Oh, that's a bad person,' in their mind, they can justify those choices. As an actor, I think my job is really just to understand why I'm making that choice as a character, but not judge him as either 'good' or 'bad.'

In season one, Remy just seemed like a suave supporting character. Did you know that they were going to bulk up your role for season two?

Well you never know with that show. Originally, I think I was going to be in three episodes of the first season and then it turned into a whole different type of deal. I'll be very present in this season as well, so I'm excited about that.

I agree. It isn't at all. That kind of surprised me, too. I usually don't go see blockbusters in general—specifically the ones that are targeted to young adults. And I kind of just grouped The Hunger Games into that, but I ended up seeing it later on and was like, 'Aw, this is like really good.' And then Catching Fire to me was a whole 'nother level, because I feel like the story matured, the character matured, it deepened. I was surprised that it resonated with me as an adult who is, unfortunately, no longer a young adult [laughs].

Tyler Joe

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When you guys are in those scenes and there are just dead bodies everywhere—is that green screen or do they build all that out?

That was…they add stuff. There's stuff that's there, but they tend to add stuff, too. Like, you remember that hospital scene where there's all those bodies?

It's that terrible corridor and the shot's long…

Exactly. That corridor we were walking through was very moving. I've got to say, even in rehearsal everyone got really quiet. On that set, you joke around 100 percent of the time between takes, but that day, actually—now that I remember, this is the first time I've talked about this—was a very different day because of what was going on in that corridor. We shot that part of it first so we didn't even get to the hospital [scene] for two or three hours. I remember looking down and being like, 'That dead guy…looks real.' And then he moved.

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Stop.

Swear to God.

And they didn't tell you?

I didn't know. I had no clue. I had no idea. I've gotta say, the dead bodies were done really well, but then they also had live people laying there scattered throughout to pick up on camera as like, the freshly dead.

Wowza. Yeah, from the cast to the wardrobe to the sound mixing, that film is no joke. Is there something noticeably different about being on a "Hunger Games" set?

Look, I got to…I think the first time I kind of experienced that a little bit was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because you've got Brad Pitt, you've got Taraji P. [Henson], and you had Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton and on and on and on. But, I didn't really work with all of them. You know? I was kind of working with Taraji for the most part. Here I'm on set and I'm like, 'There's Woody in this scene that I'm in. Philip Seymour Hoffman's in this scene. Julianne Moore's in it. Josh Hutcherson…' I'm kind of going down the line of all these—and Jennifer Lawrence, of course—people I've really grown up admiring and loving their work, and it is a different thing to be around that many people who have been that successful.

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You forgot Elizabeth Banks! There's this amazing video in which she says Jennifer Lawrence "basically has a penis"…

That sounds like Elizabeth.

Tyler Joe

Is Jennifer really as goofy as she seems?

Probably more so. It's just heightened when the camera's off of her because there are certain things that she can say that she just can't say on camera. But she is. She's goofy and fun and she's just a really beautiful person. It's like what you see is what you get. There's no pretense. She doesn't have a vain bone in her body. She surrounds herself with real people. She'll say herself, like, "I surround myself with people who tell me no." She said it the other day, "I'm around people who will be like, 'That looks terrible on you.'" She's really humble and it's great that she's only 23 or 24.

I keep getting older, she stays the same age.

Yeah, I'll be like 20 years older than her in like a year and she'll be like, 'Oh, I'm 22 now, actually.'

Tyler Joe

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So I presume being a part of something this big requires a lot of red carpet nonsense. What does your wife think about all that?

She and I have known each other for a really long time—we just got married a year ago—but we've known each other for 17 years. So, at this point, she's seen a big shift in things, but at the same time, she'll ground me real quick if I start feeling myself a little too much. She's very real, like, seriously.

Did she check out this outfit this morning?

My wife, she'll always kind of push it a little bit. I'm a little more conservative than she is, so I kind of reel it in for myself. She's always trying to get me to do something, which is great though, that I'm a little uncomfortable with. So she'll like, 'Oh, try this!' I'm like, 'Eh, no.'

What's something that she's tried to get you to wear where you were like…?

She got me these pants that had big, horizontal grey and black stripes. And I was like, 'You know, I just feel like I'm a little too old for those now.' They felt like I should be 19 in those, but she's got good taste. Every now and then there are some things that I can't roll with, but in general she's got great taste in nice little touches. I get great gifts from her. Great gifts.

Tyler Joe

Well, you know, the holidays are just around the corner. What's the plan?

Any time we get to see our folks it feels a bit like a vacation to me because we get to unplug from our routine in Brooklyn and connect with our people. This year we'll go to Chicago for Thanksgiving. It's sounds crazy, but we decided to drive. That way we have some time to be alone and take each other in before and after the madness. I like the idea of downshifting for a moment and getting some quality time with my lady.